Fresh water shortages are becoming an increasing problem around the world, with demand for fresh water for human consumption, irrigation, and/or industrial use continuing to grow. In order to meet the growing demand for fresh water, various desalination methods may be used to produce fresh water from salt-containing water such as seawater, brackish water, water produced from oil and/or gas extraction processes, flowback water, and/or wastewater. For example, one desalination method is a humidification-dehumidification (HDH) process, which involves contacting salt-containing water with a carrier gas in a humidifier, such that the carrier gas becomes heated and humidified. The heated and humidified gas is then brought into contact with cold water in a dehumidifier, thereby producing purified water.
However, HDH systems and processes often involve certain drawbacks. For example, an influent stream is often heated to a relatively high temperature prior to being introduced into a humidifier of an HDH system in order to increase efficiency and/or production rate of the system. In some cases, the heating step may require relatively large amounts of energy, which may be expensive and/or difficult to obtain. HDH systems with improved properties, such as lower temperature requirements for influent streams, are therefore desirable.